A complete lesson on investigating acceleration using light gates for KS3 pupils.
Paul Preece at Camborne Science and Community College, and his class of Year 9 pupils investigate acceleration with the traditional trolley rolling experiment.
Pupils use light gates to accurately capture the speed of the passing trolley at different positions on the slope and analyse their results.
Paul demonstrates the equipment and explains the data his students are expected to collect. They then set off to do the experiment, which involves team work and organisation as well as ICT skills.
This activity was one of several that contributed to a joint ASE/BECTA project exploring how the creative use of ICT in the classroom can support traditionally "hard to teach" science topics.
This is an extended version of one of the lessons featured in "Hard to Teach - Secondary Science Using ICT".
